Perth farewells its Red Bull run

The international air race is a challenge for pilots - and the host city, writes Geoffrey Thomas | November 02, 2007

THE competition for line honours in the 2007 Red Bull Air Race season will be tight, but so will the competition for the rights to host the event in Australia after the 2008 season.

The Western Australian Government was delighted with last year's turnout of 300,000 -- the biggest crowd ever in Australia for a sporting event. This year a crowd of 400,000 is expected for the air race staged on the Swan River.

The 2006 event generated 9000 extra visitors and more than $14 million for the state.

Earlier this year, Tourism Minister Sheila McHale said the event was a "spectacular success" and a great outcome for the state's $2.75 million investment to secure the air race.

The state Government has secured the event for three years but then must re-bid against other cities with bigger budgets. These include Sydney and Melbourne, as well as overseas cities.

Western Australia EventsCorp executive director David van Ooran says the state does not have an option on staging the event past 2008, but discussions about a new contract are under way with Red Bull International.

The air race started in 2003 and is staged around the world. It starts in Abu Dhabi in April before moving to Rio de Janeiro, Monument Valley in the US, Istanbul, Interlaken, London, Budapest, Porto in Portugal, San Diego and Perth. Away from the politics of staging future races, the current standings in the 2007 Red Bull Air Race place Team Matador's Paul Bonhomme (Britain) in the lead following a stunning victory in the penultimate race in San Diego. Bonhomme is just two points ahead of Team Cobra's Mike Mangold (US) with 43 points.

On their tail are Team Red Bull pilots Peter Besenyei of Hungary (third place with 31 points) and Kirby Chambliss of the US (fourth with 27 points), with fifth place held by Steve Jones (Britain) from Team Matador.

This year's event includes the same 11 pilots from last year's race along with two new pilots: Sergey Rakhmanin (Russia) and Hannes Arch (Austria).

The race format has been improved to make the heats seamless and more exciting, and to give the pilots a better chance to show the crowds their stuff in a new knock-out format.

This format features a series of head-to-head playoff rounds on Saturday, with two pilots pitted against each other as they race individually against the clock.

The faster of the two will advance to a series of finals on Sunday.

Last year Hungarian Peter Besenyei won the Perth Red Bull Air Race while US air ace Kirby Chambliss won the overall title.

The race is run on a slalom course over water at speeds of up to 400km/h with pilots pulling up to 9G. While it's a race against the clock, it is also a contest of precision because pilots lose points if they hit one of the "air gates" or fail to negotiate the entire course.

The air gates are made of extremely lightweight material and burst if touched by the aircraft.

Most of the teams fly experimental class Zivko Edge 540 aircraft powered by 340hp six-cylinder Textron-Lycoming AEIO-540 engines.

Power output is boosted by fitting the engines with 10:1 compression pistons and high RPM volumetric efficiency is improved with minor internal blue-printing and hotter cams to improve reliability.

The Edge 540 aircraft weighs in at 531kg empty and carries at least 36kg of fuel.

This is significantly lighter than the other two aircraft used in the races, the MXR Technologies MX2 and Extra 300S.

Ten of the 11 top finishers in the 2007 Red Bull Air Race season series fly Edge 540 aircraft.

However, both MXR Technologies and Extra Aircraft are designing new models for the 2008 season that will be lighter than the Edge 540.

However, Red Bull Air Race organisers are moving towards formulaic rules for future race aircraft designs, a move that will level the playing field. It is supported by the pilots who favour pilot skill over aircraft performance.

Red Bull Air Races are carried by more than 100 television stations around the world, and the event organisers deploy a multitude of cameras on the ground, mini-cameras in the race aircraft and one in a helicopter to capture the action.

In Perth eight giant video screens will be stationed at various locations around the Swan River and for the first time spectators can also tune into 106.5FM to listen to official commentary.

Sunday's virtual non-stop action starts at 10.30am with "aviation side acts" that involve commercial, general aviation, vintage warbirds and RAAF aircraft.

Behind the scenes, the logistics of the event are almost as impressive as the race itself.

Red Ball chartered two 747s from Atlas to carry a total of 125 tonnes of equipment including the aircraft plus 19 containers shipped from European races in Istanbul, London and Budapest to Perth.

Altogether about 220 tonnes was transported plus 270 international Red Bull Air Race crew members, who travelled by commercial flights.

"It's extremely exciting but at the same time also hugely challenging to co-ordinate all these massive and complex transport flows," series logistics manager Christof Reichl said.

"At some stages it can also get a bit tense, especially when there are last-minute changes or problems. But when you're then at a location and everything's arrived as it should it's a deeply satisfying feeling.

"If you couldn't see the end result of this operation -- a great sports event with thousands of spectators -- the whole operation would probably just seem crazy."

src: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/